One of These Things
by BeneathTheUmbrella
Summary: One-shot. A question from Penny prompts Ted to ask Tracy a very important question (again).


_So, this story is one of three one-shots. These will be three fix-it fics that will try to explain why Ted and Tracy delayed getting married for so long. (Because, _really_, would Ted actually ever wait five years?!) I decided to give a brief explanation here, but the whole thing will be fleshed out even more in the other two stories, which will take place in 2015 and 2017, respectively. So for this one right here, it's a fluff piece that gives us a backstory as to why Ted proposed the second time when he did. (And of course, it exists within the same universe I've already created in my other stories.) Enjoy!_

_N.B.: The bit of dialogue between Ted and Tracy originally appeared in "Last Forever" and belong to Craig Thomas and Carter Bays._

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><p><em>2020<em>

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><p><em>"One of these things is not like the other  One of these things just doesn't belong / Can you tell me which thing is not like the other / By the time I finish my song?"_

Ted finishes the tune as he looks at five-year-old Penny, who's in bed and staring at four toys he had placed onto her lap: three Barbie dolls and a Raggedy-Ann doll. She points to the latter and looks up at her father hopefully.

He smiles. "You got it, honey," he tells her encouragingly. "Great job!"

She was learning the _Sesame Street_ classic in her pre-K class, learning to differentiate between objects, and she was obsessed with the song, pleading with both him and Tracy every day to sing and play along with her.

It's an early Sunday afternoon in May, and Ted had put Luke down for his nap, and was now doing the same with Penny. He appeases her by playing three rounds of "One of These Things"—really, he could never say no to those big brown eyes that looked exactly like her mother's—and was now taking the toys away and tossing them in her toy chest.

"Ok," he says, sitting up and lifting her comforter up to her chin. "It's time for your nap. We'll play again later."

"Daddy?" she asks tentatively, a curious tone to her voice. It's all part of her generally curious nature, but Penny is also at that stage where questions were pouring out of her mouth in abundance.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Does mommy belong?"

He looks at her strangely, confused. "What do you mean?"

She pauses in thought for a few moments. "Mommy is not like us. I'm Penny Mosby, Lukey is Lukey Mosby, and you're Daddy Mosby. But mommy is McDonald's."

However much her question tugs at his heartstrings, Ted tries his best to bite back a laugh. "It's McConnell, honey," he corrects her gently, sitting back down on the edge of her bed. "Yeah, mommy has a different last name than us, but that doesn't mean she doesn't belong."

"Why is her name different?"

"Well, mommy and I aren't married," he explains slowly. "Remember when we told you how there are different kinds of families? Some kids have parents who are married, and some who aren't? And how some kids have two mommies or two daddies, or even just one parent? And that's ok, because all families are different. What matters the most is that there's..."

"Love," she completes his sentence.

Ted smiles. "Love," he echoes. "Mommy belongs, even though she has a different last name than us, because she loves you and your brother so much, and you guys love her. And she loves me, and I..." He pauses, losing his train of thought a bit as he thinks of her, what he feels for her. "I love her so _so_ much."

It amazes him sometimes that he could still get emotional at the thought of Tracy. Passion has a habit of waning as time passes in a relationship, he knows; their physical relationship has certainly ebbed and flowed over the years. But dammit if he didn't love her and want her as much as he did when he first met her seven years earlier.

"She's a very important part of this family," he was now telling her. "Do you understand?" He keeps his tone slow and gentle, hoping he explained it as clearly as he could for her.

"Yes," she says, but Ted could see that there was still a lingering question. "But daddy: will she ever be a Mosby?"

This gives Ted pause. _Will_ she ever? He had always hoped she would; when he first proposed to her on top of that lighthouse, that was the dream, his ultimate goal. But the plan had veered a bit off-course when Tracy found out she was pregnant two weeks later. The baby had put a hold on their wedding plans and, after Penny had arrived and they'd settled into their roles as parents nicely, Ted then spent the better part of a year flying between the East and West coasts working on the Morgan, Shepherd & Baldwin Law building in Spokane. And then Luke unexpectedly came along shortly after that, pushing back their wedding date once more.

But now... what exactly was holding them back? Life had settled down a bit, he and Tracy both agreed that two kids was enough for them, and there likely wasn't going to be some major interruption anytime soon. Sure, Tracy was working on her second book and was taking some PhD classes at night, but the whole wasn't as exhausting or time-consuming as pushing out babies, breast-feeding, long nights with a crying, colicky infant, and potty-training a toddler. In fact, Ted realized: now pretty much seemed like as good a time as any.

_Then what the hell are you waiting for?! _his mind shouted out.

Ted grins widely now. "She will," he says confidently, looking down at Penny. "Mommy _will_ become a Mosby; daddy's going to ask mommy to get married right now!"

Penny squeals in delight, crawling out from under her sheets and jumping on her bed excitedly. "Yay! Let's go, daddy!" she cries, ready to hop down off her bed.

He chuckles. "No, no," he tells her pointedly, picking her up and plopping her back down into bed. "You, my Lucky Penny, need to take your nap. This is something daddy has to do by himself."

Penny seems to sense the seriousness of his task. "Ok, daddy," she whispers conspiratorially. "I'll be here."

He presses a kiss into her brown hair, covers her with her blanket once more, and walks out of the room, gently shutting the door behind him.

Now to get his plan into action...

Ted sneaks into the master bedroom, peering up and down the hall for any sign of Tracy. Satisfied that she's still downstairs, he closes the door and grabs his phone from the bedside table. He makes a quick call to Tracy's assistant, explaining his plan, and asking her if there is any day in Tracy's schedule when he'd be able to whisk her away.

She informs Ted that Thursday looks like a slow day. And she suggests Friday too, saying the office could survive without their boss for an extra day, in case he wants to make a long weekend out of their wedding and enjoy it fully.

Pleased, Ted thanks her and hangs up. He then calls Lily to let her in on the news, and for her to ask Marshall if any of his City Hall friends could hook him up with a Thursday slot with with an officiant.

"_Whooooooooo!_" she screams on the other end, Ted making a face and pulling his phone away from his ear. "Finally! You've put this off for _way_ too long, Ted. It's about damn time! But what about your wow factor?"

Ted ponders that a moment. Does he want the big fancy wedding? Sure, maybe he does. And does Tracy deserve a big day and a big party? Of course she does; she deserves everything in the world, and more. But there's an urgency now: the desire for her to become his wife and for him to become her husband was intense. It trumps everything else right now; he wants a marriage, and could do without a wedding to make it happen.

All he wants is Tracy by his side, in holy matrimony, for the rest of his life. That alone would make his wedding the memorable and most amazing day of his life. Giant French castle, be damned.

"Like I said," he tells her softly. "She's all the wow factor I need."

He could practically hear Lily's grin on the other end. "Ok!" she tells him. "I'll talk to Marshall. And I'll start prepping a little post-wedding shindig for Thursday. This is so exciting!"

Ted beams. "It really is!" he agrees, his own excitement building. "Call Barney and Robin, and let them in on it." Although for all he knew, Lily had likely already texted Robin with the news while they were talking.

He hangs up and takes a deep breath. He's nervous. It's silly, he knows; Tracy clearly wasn't going to say no! But he has the same thrilled-yet-frightened feeling he had moments before he proposed to her in Farhampton. He recalls, though, how that feeling quickly dissipated as he looked up at her, her eyes just full of love. And then it suddenly became the easiest question in the world to ask of her.

Ted smiles and pulls open the bedroom door, exiting the room and sprinting down the stairs two steps at a time.

He finds Tracy in the living room, sitting on the couch and folding up some clean laundry. He stands at the doorway and watches her for a little while, amazed at her beauty and her good heart, and he mentally kicks himself for not marrying this woman sooner. It was now time to right his wrong.

He starts walking towards her a smile on his lips, a gleam in his eyes. She spots him and gives him a sweet smile, one that leaves Ted weak in the knees and makes him wonder in amazement how and why she chose _him_, of all the men in the world. And yet, here she was, still here with him, giving out so much love to him and the kids.

He's still smiling now, and Tracy presses her hand to her mouth. "What? Do I have stuff in my teeth?" she asks worriedly.

She does, noticing a little bit of spinach from lunch earlier, but he loves her all the more for that. "Give me your engagement ring back," he commands her softy.

Her eyes widen playfully. "_Just_ because I have stuff in my teeth?" she asks with mock incredulousness. "We-we can work through this!"

He can't help but laugh, even though he wants to be serious when he asks her this very serious question. "Just give it back!" he tells her.

Tracy laughs and pulls it off her finger, handing it over to him. She's game for whatever he has planned, he knows, but she's still looking up at him strangely, perhaps even a bit worriedly.

Ted clears his throat and holds out his hand for her. She's still looking at him as if he has two heads, so he takes her hand and pulls her up.

"Five years is past the statute of limitations on proposals," he explains as she stands before him. "If you don't get married in that time, you have to re-propose."

Ted gets down on one knee, and looks up at her. "Will you—"

"Yes, yes, you silly man!" she cries, her fingers reaching for his shoulders, ready to pull him back up.

"Let me finish!" he says sternly, but he can't help but love her exuberance. Everything in life, she did with bounce and excitement. "Will you m—

"Yes!" she says again and looks down at him apologetically. "Sorry..."

He pauses as he waits for her to get it out of her system. "Yes," she pipes out one last time.

Ted smiles and holds up his finger, trying (and badly) to contain his laughter. This makes her laugh, too.

"Will you marry me," he begins, his finger still up as he continues, "on Thursday? I called your office, you got nothing on Thursday." His voice now softens, and it's shaking lightly as he practically pleads: "Will you marry me on Thursday?"

She doesn't hesitate. "Yes," she murmurs sweetly, sincerely, as if her answer ever would've been anything but a yes.

Ted gets up and reaches for her face, cradling it gently as they kiss, and then slips the ring back onto her finger where it belongs.

She holds up her hand and looks at it, making a face. "Ugh, same ring?"

There's a teasing twinkle in her eye, and Ted gives her a mock-stern look as he reaches for her. He grabs at her ardently, hands in her hair, kissing her passionately as they laugh into each other's lips, and fall down onto the couch.

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><p>"Wow," Ted breathes out, looking up at the ceiling.<p>

"Yeah," Tracy agrees, curling up against Ted on the floor where they're squeezed in between the couch and the coffee table. She looks around at the clean laundry she had been folding, which they were now lying on top of. "I don't know how I feel about the fact that we just made love on top of Penny's _Dora the Explorer_ t-shirt and her _My Little Pony_ underwear. I'm going to have to wash all these again."

He casts her a loving glance and chuckles, wrapping an arm around her and kissing her forehead. "I'll wash 'em this time, don't worry about it. Let's just lie here for a few more minutes. It's been a while since we snuck in a quickie during naptime."

"Mm-hmm," she murmurs in agreement, pressing her lips to Ted's neck, sucking lightly on the thin skin, and then moving her mouth down to his shoulder. "But not for too long. We don't want Penny walking in on this."

"Again..." he reminds her with a shudder, and they both chuckle sheepishly at the memory from a few weeks earlier.

Tracy presses her forehead to his shoulder and sighs happily. "So, pooh bear, I have to ask: what prompted this re-proposal? It kind of came out of the blue."

"Er, I was trying to be spontaneous?" he offers. She pulls away and smiles, giving him a look that tells him she knows better.

"Honestly? I was getting Penny ready for bed, and we were singing the "One of These Things" song—"

"Oh, I cannot wait until they teach her some new songs in that class!" she admits with a laugh. "Anyway, go on."

He laughs along with her. "And then she asked me..." He stops and feels an ache in his chest, reminded of the brief moment when Penny thought her mother was a lesser member of their family, when in actual fact, she was the support column that kept their family standing. They would just crumble to the ground without her.

"What'd she ask?" Tracy presses gently, her hand at his cheek.

"She asked, since your surname was McConnell, if you didn't belong with our family," he admits, his voice barely a whisper.

Tracy gazes at him for a moment and, seemingly finding this funnier than he does, quickly bursts out with a hearty laugh. "That's it?" she asks him softly. "Ted, last week, she asked me if the fire hydrant on the sidewalk felt lonely, so she went outside and sat next to it to keep it company. It was just a silly, funny child's question. 'Out of the mouths of babes' and all that."

Ted blushes. "I don't know. She seemed pretty perturbed by the fact that you weren't a Mosby," he admits.

"Aw, even if she was, I'm sure she knows how much we love her and that last names are irrelevant when it comes to family," she says, reaching for his hand and lacing her fingers with his. "You can't let her questions get you down like that, babe. I mean, we're happy and healthy, and things are pretty good as they are. Right?"

He gazes into her eyes and lifts their joined hands, kissing her fingers. "Things are _great_," he assures her. "Ok, maybe I got a bit too sensitive, but her question just got me thinking: what are we waiting for, you know? In the past, it was one roadblock after another that had us postponing the wedding. But now, I realized we had nothing left that was stopping us. So... what's stopping us?"

Tears have started pooling in Tracy's eyes, at the soft and serious tone of his voice, at the heartfeltness of his words. "Absolutely nothing," she tells him, giving him a watery smile. "It's finally time. Let's get married, honey."

He presses his forehead to hers, breathing in her scent and that of the rainfall-scented laundry enveloping them. They lie there is silence, soaking in the moment and each other, taking in the weight and importance of this next step in their relationship.

"So," she says with a sniffle, trying to lighten the mood. "Getting married doesn't automatically make me a Mosby, you know. To change my name, I have to submit our marriage certificate. I need to fill out a form. And then wait in a _line_! Likely a pretty long one, too. Penny has built-up the awesomeness of being a Mosby; all this effort better be worth it."

Ted grins. "It will be, I promise," he says, adjusting his body and draping himself on top of her. "There's a secret handshake, we have Casual Fridays, you get a pin after five years of membership, and we have secret meetings every other week."

"Meetings? Yawn!" she tells him, clasping her hands at his lower back, holding him close.

"Well, if it's any consolation, there are a few adults-only Mosby meetings a few times a week," he whispers in her ear. "They're much more fun."

"Are they, now?" she asks cheekily, looking into his eyes. "So you've been having solo Mosby time at these meetings, then?"

"And I've been waiting _soooo_ long for a second member," he murmurs, kissing her nose. "And on Thursday night, after we're married, we can have our first official meeting."

"It's likely going to be a long one," she warns jokingly. "You have _a lot_ to teach me on being a Mosby, after all. It may even turn into an all-nighter. You think you can handle me being a Mosby?"

Ted lowers himself down Tracy's body, resting his head on her chest, his chin nestled in the valley between her breasts. It's a cozy spot, and he feels safe and content and complete. "Mrs. Ted Mosby," he murmurs against her skin, sighing happily as Tracy's fingers begin to tenderly stroke his hair. His eyes then dart upwards to look into those of his lover, his best friend, his confidante. And, in just a few short days, his wife—finally. "You'll do great; you're the _only_ woman in the world who can totally nail this part."

_END_


End file.
